Academic Catalog 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Listing
|
|
|
Courses listed below are grouped together alphabetically by subject prefix. To search for a specific course, please follow the instructions in the course filter box below and click on “Filter.”
Departments and interdisciplinary programs are described in detail on the Majors, Minors, and Other Programs page within this catalog. Please refer to the detailed sections on each area of study for more information. Requirements to fulfill a major or minor appear within each program or area of study.
All students must also complete the courses in the Common Curriculum (General Education), including Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) requirements and other requirements that pertain to the undergraduate degree. Courses are numbered as follows.
000-049 - Non-credit courses.
050-099 - Common Curriculum (General Education) courses and others that do NOT count toward the major.
100-199 - Introductory-level courses which count for the major.
200-299 - Sophomore/junior-level courses that can be taken by non-majors. (Some departments may use 200-249 and 250-259 to delineate between sophomore and junior level offerings.)
300-399 - Upper-level courses intended primarily for majors - these are courses representing the depth component of the major.
400-499 - All advanced courses for seniors, including those used to fulfill WS (Senior Writing Experience requirement), small seminars, research, thesis, and independent studies.
Wherever possible, the departments have indicated the instructor and the term during which a course is given. Some courses are offered only occasionally and are so indicated. The College retains the right not to offer a course, especially if enrollment is insufficient.
A few courses are not valued at full course credit, and some carry double credit.
A full course unit may be equated to five quarter-credit hours, or three and one-third semester credit hours.
|
| |
History |
| |
-
HST 120 - The Emergence of Modern America, 1877-1918 Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The impact of urbanization and industrialization on the creation of the modern United States, 1890-1920.
|
| |
-
HST 121 - The Depression and New Deal Course Units: 1
(Winter; Morris) The years between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II witnessed not only a dramatic contrast between the prosperity of the 1920s and the Great Depression of the 1930s, but also a fundamental reordering of America’s political system forged during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. This course will examine the crisis and transformation of the American economy and political system during the 1920s and 1930s, and their impact on Americans of all walks of life.
|
| |
-
HST 123 - Postwar America and the Origins of the Cold War Course Units: 1
(Spring; Morris) The stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union permeated the politics and culture of the United States from the end of the Second World War through the early 1960s. This course will explore the origins of the Cold War, the terms on which it was fought, and the degree to which it imposed a political and cultural “consensus” on the United States.
|
| |
-
HST 124 - Monuments, Museums, and Movies: Introduction to Public History Course Units: 1
(Fall; Lawson) This course will provide an overview of public history, defined as the presentation of history to a general public audience. Students will learn the theory, methods, and practice of public history in its various dimensions, including museums, monuments, historic sites, and films; they will explore the controversies that emerge in public history settings, including the battle over the Enola Gay, the Holocaust Museum, and commemorations of September 11th; and they will engage in a public history project in the Schenectady area.
|
| |
-
HST 125 - Coming Apart?: America in the Sixties Course Units: 1
(Fall; Feffer) A study of the breakdown of political and cultural consensus between 1956 and 1974. We will examine the degree to which counter-cultural and racial politics of the period successfully challenged the dominant political culture on issues of war, race, and gender.
|
| |
-
HST 126 - Since Yesterday: United States History, 1974-2000 Course Units: 1
(Winter; Feffer) If the United States “came apart” in the 1960s, did it come back together in the 1970s and 1980s, or something else? This course looks at the emergence of new social movements (e.g., the women’s and environmentalist movements), the rise of the “new right,” the Reagan “revolution” in domestic policy, and American foreign policy from the fall of Saigon to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.
|
| |
-
HST 128 - The American Jewish Experience Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Jews arrived in Britain’s American colonies in 1654. In the space of 350 years their numbers increased dramatically and they made significant contributions to a plethora of areas in American society. Jews and Judaism also experienced significant changes through the encounter with the United States. But for all the gains in status and achievement, there are those who speak of a problematic future for American Jewry.
|
| |
-
HST 129 - History of Sports in America Course Units: 1
(Fall; Brennan) Fields of battle (military, political, economic, and social) generally characterize the teaching of American history. Throughout times of conflict, however, it has often been the fields of American sport which have provided distraction, respite, and relief from these struggles. Meanwhile during times of peace, the fields of sport have contributed more than leisure and entertainment; they have reflected the American people’s lives, hopes and dreams. Sport, in other words, has been and continues to be an active mediator in America’s life, and a lens through which we can examine the broader contexts of American history.
|
| |
-
HST 131 - African-American History 1 Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The purpose of this course is to help you better understand both the role of race and slavery in early American history and the contributions of African-Americans to society and culture in America before 1877. The course will examine the lives of black Americans, enslaved and free, from the arrival of the first Africans in the New World through Reconstruction. It will also address more abstract ideas about cultural and “racial” differences. Throughout this course, you will be asked to consider the question “which came first, racism or slavery?” CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 132 - African-American History 2 Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course covers the Black experience in America from the end of the Civil War until the present day. It will generally proceed chronologically, but there may be some overlap as it tries to cover certain themes, such as culture, oppression, resistance, and identity. Throughout the course students will be asked to consider the question to what extent is the African-American experience unique and to what extent is it representative of the “American” experience. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 135 - Latinos(as) in US History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The Spanish exploration of the Southwest and West; the changes in all areas of the U.S. through major waves of immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean.
|
| |
-
HST 138 - Big History Course Units: 1
(Winter; Walker) An exploration of the past from the big bang to the present, dividing the history of the universe, earth, life, and humanity into periods using very large scales of time.
|
| |
-
HST 141 - Medieval Europe Course Units: 1
(Fall; Sargent) The emergence of western European civilization after the fall of the Roman Empire. The period 300-1350 is surveyed with special attention to factors that influenced later European civilization.
|
| |
-
HST 142 - Renaissance and Reformation Europe Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The beginnings of modern Europe in the period 1350-1650 with emphasis on Italian humanism, Renaissance Florence, the Protestant Reformation, and the rise and fall of Spain.
|
| |
-
HST 143 - Entrepreneurship in Medieval and Renaissance Europe Course Units: 1
(Fall; Sargent) Examines the meaning and impact of entrepreneurship during the 500 years (or so) prior to the rise of modern capitalism in the early modern era. Takes a broad view of entrepreneurship as the ability to perceive opportunities that others cannot see and to exploit those opportunities by combining resources and expertise to achieve a particular end. Economic entrepreneurs get most, but not all, of the attention.
|
| |
-
HST 145 - Early Modern Europe Course Units: 1
(Winter; Sargent) European society from the seventeenth century through the Enlightenment, stressing social, economic, institutional, and intellectual developments.
|
| |
-
HST 147 - Revolutionary History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course will survey major themes in modern European history, including: the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution; the French Revolution; the Russian Revolution and Soviet Communism; and the National Socialist Revolution, World War II, and the Holocaust.
|
| |
-
HST 148 - Europe Between Two Wars Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) An analysis of major socio-economic and political developments in western Europe from the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War.
|
| |
-
HST 149 - The Second World War Era Course Units: 1
(Spring; Berk) Authoritarian movements in Europe and Asia during the Depression decade, the origins of World War II, the alliance against the Axis, the consequences of the war, and the emergence of new social and political structures during the postwar era.
|
| |
-
HST 152 - The Great War Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course will cover World War I, at the time called the “Great War,” beginning before 1914 with the run-up to war and ending after the war, including the postwar settlement, the early period of the Russian Revolution, and the origins of fascism in Italy and Germany. This is an international history, including the conflict on the western and eastern fronts as well as conditions on the home fronts of the various countries. The course lectures and readings will be accompanied by several films.
|
| |
-
HST 154 - Russia in the Imperial Age Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Major institutional and ideological developments from the time of the first Romanov to the February Revolution of 1917.
|
| |
-
HST 155 - From Lenin to Putin: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union Course Units: 1
(Fall; Berk) Russia on the eve of the Revolution. Political, economic, and social developments during the periods of revolution, war, communism, NEP, rapid industrialization, and the postwar years, including the post-Soviet period.
|
| |
-
HST 156 - History of Poland Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) A history of Poland from the formation of the first Polish state to the present. Poland under foreign occupation, independent Poland, communist, and post communist Poland are the focal points in this course.
|
| |
-
HST 157 - Modern Jewish History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) European, American & Middle Eastern Jewish communities from the fifteenth century, their origins and function within Christian Europe; response of the European Jewry to the Enlightenment and the growth of anti-Semitism and Zionism.
|
| |
-
HST 158 - The Holocaust Course Units: 1
(Spring; Berk) European and American Jewry in the period 1933- 1945, focusing on modern anti-Semitism, the Nazi world view, German extermination policies, the response of Europe and the United States, and Jewish behavior in a time of crisis.
|
| |
-
HST 161 - The Peoples of Britain Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Images of royalty, Wimbledon, fish and chips, or ‘Rule Britannia’ sometimes come to mind when we think of Britain. Typically, England has received disproportionate attention in histories despite the fact that four ‘nations’ have existed within the geographical bounds of the ‘British Isles’ (Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England) and many peoples have found their way to those islands: Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norse, Normans, Afro-Caribbeans, Southeast Asians, peoples of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This introductory course explores the remarkable interactions among these people who defined the British Isles from the first settlements right through to the present. Upon completion of this course you will have obtained a working knowledge of British History from which to explore the subject in more depth and also be able to demonstrate understanding and appreciation of cultural complexity through the cross-cultural comparisons made in the course. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 171 - Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the Era of Columbus Course Units: 1
(Fall; Meade) A study of the relationship of Spain and Portugal with Africa, Asia, and the Americas from the early fifteenth through the late eighteenth centuries. The course examines the early civilizations of Africa, Europe, and the Americas in the era before the voyage of Columbus and the interaction among these three worlds in the centuries after the Encounter. It concludes with an examination of the cultural legacy of Africa and Europe on the indigenous societies of the Americas and the subsequent development of multicultural and multiracial independent nations. The central role of gender relations between the civilizations, the gendered conflict that characterized the era of exploration, and the role of masculinity are all examined. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 172 - Reform and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Examines the political and social changes in Latin America as a result of the nineteenth and twentieth century reform and revolutionary movements, including the Unidad Popular government in Chile under Salvador Allende and its overthrow by General Pinochet and the subsequent dictatorial rule. The effect of the 1959 Cuban Revolution on Latin America; the revolutionary uprisings in Central America, in Chiapas, Mexico, and against the military government of Argentina form other key areas of examination. The course places special emphasis on the intersection of gender, race and class conflicts and movements, with particular attention to the role of emerging feminist movements. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 173 - History of the Caribbean and Central America Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course covers the history of the Caribbean and Central America from pre-colonial times to the present. It includes a survey of the impact of both extinct and enduring indigenous cultures, the rivalries among Spanish, Dutch, French, and British powers for control of the Caribbean, and the history of slavery, the plantation system, rebellions and revolutions against enslavement, colonialism, and modern imperialism. The course ends with the early 21st-century struggles for self-determinism among the nations of the region. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 181 - Confucians and Conquerors: East Asian Traditions Course Units: 1
(Spring; Madancy) An overview of the traditional civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea, focusing on the emergence and development of ideologies, institutions, and social patterns up to 1800. Special emphasis on fostering an appreciation for the richness and complexity of each individual society. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 182 - Rebels, Reds, and Regular Folks: The Turbulent History of Modern Asia Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) An analytical overview of the major themes and historical processes that shaped China, Japan, and Korea from the nineteenth century to the present. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 183 - Introduction to South Asian Civilizations Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) In this course we shall investigate the area of South Asia by focusing on important historical debates surrounding themes such as history, religion, nationalism, colonialism and family life. We will seek to explore these themes for two to three weeks through Movies and Documentaries: Gandhi, Jinnah, Ambedkar, India Untouched, Jodha Akbar. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 184 - Modern India Course Units: 1
(Winter; Mazumder) We will concentrate on the impact of colonialism on the Indian subcontinent and on the formation of the modern South Asian States of India and Pakistan through historically-based films. We will study the representation of Indian society and history in the booming Bollywood film industry. The culture of colonialism, the nature of the colonial state and the emergence of nationalism, are themes which are explored. Chronologically, we will survey the history of Indian subcontinent from the inception of colonial rule in the late eighteenth century to the establishment of independent nation states of India and Pakistan in the middle of the twentieth century (1800-1947). Prerequisite(s): Since this is a survey course there are no prerequisites. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 194 - The Modern History of the Middle East Course Units: 1
(Fall; Berk) Problems in the political, social, and economic history of the Middle East in modern times; the demise of the Ottoman Empire; impact of the West upon the Arab world; relations among the new Arab states; and the coming of modernization.
|
| |
-
HST 195 - From Abraham to Mohamed and Beyond: The Early History of the Jews Course Units: 1
(Winter; Berk) History of the Jewish people in its first 1600 years from tribal beginnings to the destruction of the second Commonwealth.
|
| |
-
HST 201 - Contemporary Africa Course Units: 1
(Fall; Peterson) This course examines the history of Africa since 1950 with an emphasis on politics and culture. Through readings of novels, memoirs and historical accounts, combined with lectures, discussions and films, this course will explore the last fifty years of African history. Much of the course will focus on case studies in such countries or regions as West Africa, East Africa, the Congo, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 203 - Judaism/Christianity/Islam Course Units: 1
(Same as REL 203 ) (Not Offered this Academic Year) This course offers a comparative approach to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, three closely related religious traditions. It attempts to draw out commonalities among and differences between these traditions by focusing on their histories, their understandings of God, revelation and tradition, religion and society, and responses to social and political change. CC: HUM
|
| |
-
HST 204 - Wine: A Global History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Global History ls the most important field in History today. This thematic course in comparative global history uses an essential foodstuff in human history to weave together societies and peoples across time, space, and geography: grapes, in this case the empire of viticulture (wine-making). There are great stories of human history to be told using wine. Its history is a global environmental history: the spread, retreat, and reintroduction of wine across climate zones and distinctive terroir worldwide. Vineyards also record the natural history of grapes and their evolution, the battles with disease and infestation, the chemical processes of wine-making, the impact of technology, and the biochemical and sensory effects of color, texture, taste, and intoxication. The history of wine is also a history of empire, trade, and power. The Spanish conquest of the Americas brought with it Christianity, expropriation, and viticulture. Today migrant laborers from Mexico and Latin America harvest the grapes that find their way from Washington, Oregon, and California as wine. The commercial history of wine is thus a history of labor and social justice as old as time. Wine also records spiritual and aesthetic journeys through human history. And it is a window into today’s existential challenges of sustainability and climate change. This course teaches foundational concepts in global history and introductory research skills through which students have the opportunity to complete a guided research project. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 205 - Clash of Civilizations? Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Are we living through a clash of civilizations? East vs West? Christianity vs Islam? Or is this too simple-minded a way to think about human history? Indeed it is. Simple-minded ideas like the clash of civilizations are not only bad history they betray the need for human understanding in our complex world. This course explores something fundamental to the human experience: the encounters, interactions, and exchanges (for good or bad) of diverse peoples and societies across time and space. We will explore four historic meeting places: Marseille and the south of France in the Classical Greco-Roman Mediterranean; the crossroads of faiths and empires that was early-modern Jerusalem; the Native American and European middle ground of the Great Lakes and the world of the Voyageurs; the hip, historic, and dynamic scene that is modern multicultural Berlin. This is a thematic course in comparative global history; it also teaches research skills and includes the opportunity for you to develop your own guided research on modern Berlin. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 209 - Race, Gender, and Nationalism in American Sports Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course examines the development and the history of US sports from the 19th through the 21st centuries with special focus on sports’ bond with nationalism, race, and gender. Modern sports cannot escape its association with US emergence in international affairs at the end of the 19th century. Intertwined with the process of establishing national identity were muscular Christian notions about masculine prowess and belief in women’s natural physical limitations accompanied by a persistent belief in the fundamental superiority of the white race and its obligation to dominate over “inferior” races and cultures. As surely as sport became associated with American identity, nationalism, gender, and race became integral defining characteristics of sport. This course will be driven primarily by reading and discussion. Lectures will be used to supplement and place the readings in historical perspective, but the focus will be on reading, comprehension, and analysis. Students are encouraged to bring a variety of pre-occupations, pre-conceived ideas, and personal viewpoints to the course; they will be expected to give oral and written expression to their analysis and perspectives.
|
| |
-
HST 211 - American Indian History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) An overview of the diverse experiences and histories of the native peoples of North America in the last five centuries. Particular attention will be paid to native peoples’ various strategies to respond to change and challenges to native autonomy and communities. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 212 - “Remember the Ladies”: American Women to 1900 Course Units: 1
(Fall; Foroughi) An examination of changing gender roles from 1600 to 1890. Topics include work, family, civil and legal identity, and the impact of race, class, and geographic location on women’s experiences.
|
| |
-
HST 213 - Work, Wars, and Wombs: American Women from 1900 Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) An examination of changing gender roles from 1890 to the present. Topics include the evolution of feminism, and the impact of race and class on women’s experiences.
|
| |
-
HST 216 - The Writing and Ratification of the Constitution Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) A study of the major influences on the US Constitution, how it was written, and how it was adopted.
|
| |
-
HST 221 - Popular Culture and American History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The popular arts and entertainments of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries are placed in historical context and studied as a means to rediscover the intellectual and emotional life of ordinary Americans.
|
| |
-
HST 222 - Other Voices: Women in the History of American Ideas Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The contribution of women to the development of American intellectual and cultural life, from Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Angela Davis.
|
| |
-
HST 223 - Twentieth Century American Intellectual History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) An overview of the major social and political issues that shaped and unshaped American liberal thought from John Dewey to Andrea Dworkin.
|
| |
-
HST 224 - (332) Transnational America Course Units: 1
(Winter; Feffer) The United States is now the center of global production, yet it is also swept by the forces of international cultural change. How did we reach that position and what consequences does it have for our national integrity, our identity as Americans, our way of life, and our relationship to other nations and peoples? Students read recent literature on the history of transnationality and globalism as it has affected the economy, ethnic identity, cultural production (in literature and film), and international relations of the United States in the twentieth century. Prerequisite(s): Any 100-level or 200-level history course or permission of the instructor. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 225 - American Environmental History Course Units: 1
(Fall; Morris) This course aims to give students the knowledge and the tools to think critically about how history has shaped the present state of the earth and human relationships with it. It focuses on the history of man’s interaction with nature on the North American continent, with a particular focus on the area that would become the United States, from precolonial times until the present.
|
| |
-
HST 226 - A Novel View of US History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course will examine the broad scope of American history from colonial times to the present as it has been revealed in American literature and novels. Employing principally primary source literature, the course will introduce students not only to American history but to an understanding of important events and developments as comprehended by those who experienced those events or who were contemporary interpreters of those events. Supplemented by lectures on the facts of historical events, primary source works will be used to re-introduce personality and complexity to the historical context in order to stimulate student understanding of the American experience. Students will be encouraged to analyze and examine the variety of outlooks that propel history, while also learning an appreciation for the value and potential of personal scrutiny, insight, and perspective. Primarily driven by readings and discussion, lectures will be used to supplement and place the readings in historical context; however, the focus will be on reading, analysis, comprehension, and communication.
|
| |
-
HST 227 - Interviews with History: An Introduction to Oral History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) What was history like for men and women who lived it? Oral History is the practice of collecting stories and information about the past from individuals. In this class, students will read, listen to, and watch oral histories; they will learn theories of memory as they relate to oral history; they will discuss the ethical and legal issues surrounding oral history; and they will learn how to perform, record, and edit an oral history interview. Students will spend a significant portion of their time working on individual projects wherein they will conduct and interpret oral history interviews and write an essay based on that work.
|
| |
-
HST 228 - History of Union College Course Units: 1
(Spring; Brennan) The history of Union College is broad and impressive; however, tight schedules while rushing to class in Butterfield or Bailey, a meeting in Hale House or Feigenbaum, a conference or guest lecture in the Nott, or an event at Achilles makes it easy to overlook that history. Since 1795, there have been wars, economic expansions and depressions, internal and external political conflicts, and social revolutions; through it all. Union has not just survived but endured, while remaining committed to the progressive ideals of its founding. This course will investigate the history of the modem, living institution that is Union today, that is. the physical realities of the college (grounds, buildings, and landscape) as well as the academic, athletic, and social environments that provide life and meaning for all who have entered its gates. Understanding the history of Union gives students an opportunity to shape the future - as Union and its alumni have shaped the past.
|
| |
-
HST 229 - The Adirondacks and American Environmental History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The Adirondack region of northern New York Slate has been a proving ground for shifting American attitudes toward the environment, from early colonial (ears of wilderness, to intensive resource exploitation, and to efforts to conserve natural resources and preserve distinctive wilderness areas. This course will examine Adirondack environmental history and place it in the context of broader American environmental history. It will leverage Union College’s proximity to the region, and the resources of the Union College Kelly Adirondack Center, to offer students both intellectual and experiential engagement with the history of this distinctive place.
|
| |
-
HST 231 - The Civil Rights Movement Course Units: 1
(Winter; Lawson) A survey of the civil rights movement, assessing the early campaigns of the 1940s, the development of black grassroots organizations in the 1950s and 1960s, and the impact of black nationalist consciousness in the late 1960s and early 70s. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 232 - History of New Orleans Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This class examines the history of New Orleans from its founding in 1718 to the present day. The course will proceed chronologically and will focus on the recurring and interrelated themes of Race, Geography, and Culture. In the process we will unravel the extent to which the crescent city is or is not representative of the history of urban America in general. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 240 - The Crusades: Christianity and Islam in Conflict Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The conquest of Jerusalem and the Holy Land by knights from western Europe and the response of the region’s Muslims, 1096-1291. Special attention is given to the development of a crusading spirit and its corruption under the influence of religious, political, and economic expediency and personal greed.
|
| |
-
HST 241 - Mystics, Magic, and Witchcraft in Medieval and Early Modern Europe Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) A survey of learned and popular beliefs about the influence of supernatural and occult powers on individuals and society.
|
| |
-
HST 245 - Occult Sciences and Societies Course Units: 1
(Spring; Sargent) Surveys the rise of occult sciences, such as ritual magic, astrology, and alchemy, and the influence of real and imagined secret societies dedicated to the preservation and transmission of such esoteric knowledge. Examines the legends associated with the suppression of the Templars in fourteenth-century France, and the revival of Platonism, Jewish Kabbalah, and pseudo-Egyptian Hermeticism in Renaissance Italy. Considers the dissemination of such ideas throughout early-modern Europe, the alchemical theories of Paracelsus and Isaac Newton, and the imagined societies of esoteric utopias. Concludes with the rise of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and the Bavarian Illuminati and their possible influence on the French Revolution.
|
| |
-
HST 247 - Men, Women, and Gender in Early Modern Europe Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course is a lower-division exploration of the creation, operation, and interaction of masculinities and femininities (in the plural) in Europe between roughly 1500 and 1789. We will read both primary and secondary works on the topic. “Gender history” is not simply another way of saying “women’s history.” Instead, we also will employ gender as a lens through which to consider the experiences of both men and women during the period. Learning objectives for the term include critiquing the use of gender as a category of historical analysis; investigating the gap between prevailing early modern notions about manhood and womanhood and the lived experiences of modern men and women; and teasing apart the intersection of gender with other factors, especially race, class, age, marital status, and religious identity.
|
| |
-
HST 248 - Men, Women, and Gender in Modern Europe Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course is a lower-division exploration of the creation, operation, and interaction of masculinities and femininities (in the plural) in Europe between roughly 1789 and the present. We will read both primary and secondary works on the topic. “Gender history” is not simply another way of saying “women’s history.” Instead, we also will employ gender as a lens through which to consider the experiences of both men and women during the period. Learning objectives for the term include critiquing the use of gender as a category of historical analysis; investigating the gap between prevailing modern notions about manhood and womanhood and the lived experiences of modern men and women; and teasing apart the intersection of gender with other factors, especially race, class, age, marital status, and religious identity.
|
| |
-
HST 256 - Modern European Ideas Course Units: 1
(Spring; Walker) This course will survey important ideas in modern European history, including the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Michel Foucault.
|
| |
-
HST 257 - Modern France and Its Empire Course Units: 1
(Winter; Peterson) In this course, we will examine the political, social, economic and cultural history of modem France and its empire since 1789. We will explore the history of France within wider transnational and imperial contexts, as well as in its post-colonial era, when immigration and cultural difference have emerged as central issues within France itself. Through lectures, discussions, novels, memoirs, and films, we will seek to understand the history of modern France as both a nation-state and empire. In particular, we will also look at the colonial and post-colonial histories of francophone West and North African countries. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 258 - Nazi Science, Medicine, & Technology Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course is a history of how science, medicine, and technology interacted with Nazism, beginning with the background of the First World War and Weimar Republic, through the Third Reich, and continuing through to its legacy during the post-Second World War era. This story extends beyond Germany, both because of the international effects of this interaction, and through comparisons with science, medicine, and technology under other regimes and in other cultures.
|
| |
-
HST 261 - Medieval Britain 1000-1509 Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Britain in 1000: England was divided and the Anglo-Saxons were in a fight for survival with the Norse, the kingdom of Scots was an ill-formed hodgepodge of Gaels, Celts, Picts, Saxons, and Norse, and in the West the Cymry, the peoples of Wales, clung fiercely to their identity as the original Celtic inhabitants of Britain. In the decades after the famous Norman conquest of 1066, Britain became part of a vast French-speaking Empire. Which peoples and nations would survive, thrive, and achieve supremacy on the island of Britain? This question is examined by analyzing the Scottish wars of independence, the Hundred Years War with France, the great dynastic struggles of the English Wars of the Roses, the notorious reputation of Richard III and the rise of the Tudors, and the triumph of the Stewart kings in Scotland. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 262 - (266) The Age of Henry VIII Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Remarkable women and men made history in Britain during the Age of Henry VIII: six wives (Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine and Katherine), faithful and far from saintly servants like Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell, and an evangelical boy destined to become Edward VI. This was an age of personal monarchy, patriarchy, and the rule of wealthy elites, but these figures travelled paths and pursued policies that changed the way every person lived. They nurtured and unleashed religious passions that divided generations and whole peoples from one another, and hundreds - eventually thousands - died at the hands of those who believed they had a monopoly on spiritual truth. This course analyzes the imperial ambitions of Henry VIII and Edward VI in Britain and Ireland, the brutal dynastic and religious politics of the period, and the all-out assault on the traditional faith in the Tudor dominions.
|
| |
-
HST 263 - (267) The Tudor and Stewart Queens Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The radical Protestant John Knox published a tract in 1558 denouncing what he called the ‘monstrous regiment of women’. He had in mind three women who dominated the political scene: Queen Mary I of England (Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter) Marie of Guise (widow and queen regent of the deceased James V of Scotland); and young Mary Queen of Scots, betrothed to the future king of Catholic France. Knox had the spectacularly bad luck to publish his attack on queenship at the moment when Mary I died and her Protestant sister Elizabeth ascended the throne, a queen mighty in defense of her authority and with a temper to match her illustrious father Henry VIII. These women defined British History after 1550. Looking back on these years, Francis Bacon wrote of the ‘strange perturbations’ of England, having been ruled by a boy king (Edward VI) and two women before finally again seeing on the throne a proper adult male, James VI of Scotland - with nice irony, Mary Queen of Scots’ son. This course explores the lives of these Tudor and Stewart queens and analyzes the intersections of gender, authority, and religious zeal that defined their age.
|
| |
-
HST 264 - The Stuart Wars 1603-1660 Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) In 1603, James VI of Scotland became the first king to rule all of Britain and Ireland, when he added Elizabeth I’s crown to his own. This was the first in a series of remarkable revolutions examined in this course. James successfully consolidated this new Stuart imperium in England, Wales, and Scotland. The Protestant plantations in Ulster created the origins of the modern-day troubles in Northern Ireland. Settlements in the Americas inaugurated a British Atlantic Empire built on sugar and tobacco, slavery and a British diaspora. James passed to his successor Charles I a dangerous ideology of imperial kingship that asserted the crown’s unchallenged authority over all matters spiritual and temporal. When Charles attempted to make good on that ideology in his religiously and ethnically diverse kingdoms, the result was war, wars that eventually cost the king his head. For the first and only time, a British king was tried and executed for committing tyranny, the monarchy abolished, and a republic created. Inspired by the message of radical social justice in the Bible, English men and women demanded freedom and equality in these years. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 265 - The Museum: Theory and Practice Course Units: 1
(Same as ANT 265 ) (Spring; Lawson) This course is designed to introduce students to the work of museums through an internship at a Schenectady Museum and accompanying seminar. Articles from anthropology and history (including art history) expose you to the range of practical (e.g., exhibit design, collections policy, planning educational programs) and theoretical issues scholars study (e.g., intellectual property, commodifying culture, whose voice and history should be heard). The internship at a Schenectady Museum gives hands-on experience with museum work and the day-to-day issues museum staff confront. Several fieldtrips introduce different types of museums.
|
| |
-
HST 268 - (162) The Making of Modern Scotland Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Kilts, haggis, heather, and Highlands: all things that come to mind when we think of Scotland. Yet few of us probably appreciate just how much the people of that rugged country contributed to modern history: radical Protestantism and the King James Bible, Highland regiments and Enlightenment thinkers, links golf and Robbie Burns, the steam engine (James Watt) and the “invisible hand” (Adam Smith), Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh) and the Edinburgh Arts Festival. This course studies Scotland’s history and its people’s search for a modern identity. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 269 - Orwell’s England 1900-1950 Course Units: 1
(Winter; Cramsie) The English writer George Orwell did far more than give us the famous novel 1984. Just 47 years old when he died, Orwell lived through the decades that defined both his England and the 20th century. Too young to fight in the Great War, Orwell became a colonial administrator in Burma before answering the call to write. Orwell’s pen interrogated English society, championed social justice, and denounced totalitarian ideologies of the Right and Left. He chronicled the epic history through which his generation lived: British imperialism, the Great Depression, Stalinism and the rise of Fascism, Britain’s ‘finest hour’ in World War II, and the challenges of building a just, peaceful order in a world dominated by two rival superpowers. This course examines the history of England and the first half of the twentieth century through a selection of Orwell’s novels, non-fiction books, essays, and reportage combined with standard historical accounts, film, and critical analyses of Orwell’s literary record. By the time you complete this course you will have studied the works of an important literary figure and used your critical literary and historical analysis of them to broaden and deepen your understanding of England and the Twentieth Century. CC: HUL
|
| |
-
HST 270 - History of Latin American Popular Culture Course Units: 1
(Spring; Meade) This course examines the history of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries. Our “texts” for this course are novels, political cartoons, movies, TV shows and music, along with traditional history books. The course seeks to examine the way that Latin American societies have depicted themselves in the popular media, the way that the United States has viewed and absorbed Latin American culture, and the ways that historians have sought to explain the transformations in various countries by examining popular culture. Since Latin American and Caribbean cultures are so closely linked to the United States, and because an increasing number of U.S. citizens are of Latino descent, this course offers valuable insights into the transformations occurring in US culture. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 271 - History of Mexico Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Mexican civilization from its origins to the present - ancient Maya and Aztec cultures; the Spanish conquest; colonial society; the independence wars; Mexico in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the Mexican Revolution; and current cultural, social, and economic issues, including the Zapatista rebellion, NAFTA, and the changing nature of the borderlands region between Mexico and the USA. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 272 - History of Brazil Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This is a survey interpretation of Brazilian history from the days of Portuguese expansion to the present, including the contrast between the urban and rural areas, the Atlantic slave trade, slavery and the resistance to it, the plantation system and post-abolition race relations, the destruction of the rainforest, the emergence of democratic structures in modern Brazil, and the rise of Brazil as a 21st century economic powerhouse. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 274 - Social and Political Movements in Latin America Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course examines the history of recent social movements in Latin America. We will explore a variety of issues including democracy, racism, class, gender and ethnic divisions, human rights, globalization and popular movements. Rather than viewing Latin America from a North American point of view, we will examine how Latin Americans see themselves and how their culture, economics, and politics have developed in different directions than other parts of the world, especially the United States and Europe. While social movements have at times erupted into full fledged revolutionary upheavals, more often Latin American struggles have been ongoing, such as factory occupations, land seizures, and demonstrations for gender equality, workers’ rights, indigenous autonomy, protection of the environment, and students’ rights. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 275 - United States Foreign Relations and Modern Latin America Course Units: 1
(Winter; Meade) This course is about relationships, exchanges, and tensions among the people and nations of the Americas from the mid 19th century to the present. The most powerful foreign influence (political and otherwise) in Latin America has consistently been the US, often with quite negative consequences. In the 21st century relations between the US and Latin America have changed dramatically. China has replaced the US as the most important trading partner for several countries, particularly Brazil, the largest economy of Latin America. In addition, the US is experiencing a demographic transformation with an increasing number of immigrants from Latin America making up the populations of just about every state. The history of the US and Latin American is increasingly a “shared” history. In this course we will look at interconnections, comparisons, and the common links between Latin America and the US in what is now a history of both foreign and domestic relations. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 278T - South Africa Mini-Term Course Units: 1
(Staff)
|
| |
-
HST 281 - Samurai to Salarymen: Modern Japanese History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Analysis of the social, economic and political changes that have characterized Japan’s emergence as a world power from the Meiji restoration to the present. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 282 - The Mongols: Terror, Trade and Tolerance Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course explores the rise, fall, and memory of the great Mongol empire. Students will read not only about the Mongols themselves, but also about the many cultures and countries that the Mongols conquered, and we will analyze those fraught cross-cultural encounters through primary and secondary source materials. We will also look at how the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the Mongols has evolved over time, and students will look at the way Genghis Khan is depicted in films and monuments. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 283 - The Mao Years Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course explores the phenomenal changes and catastrophic consequences of Mao Zedong’s domination of China. Although the bulk of the class focuses on events following the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to Mao’s death in 1976, we will begin by looking at the China into which Mao was born in 1893 and trace his rise to power. We will also examine the legacy of the Mao years on contemporary Chinese politics and society. Students will analyze Mao’s China through memoirs, films, visual propaganda, secondary analyses, and of course, Mao’s Little Red Book. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 284 - Hobbled & Heroic: Women in China and Japan Course Units: 1
(Winter; Madancy) A comparative look at how the societies of China and Japan shaped the various roles assumed by women in these two cultures, as well as the evolution of those roles over time. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 285 - The Samurai: Lives, Loves, and Legacies Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course explores the evolution of the samurai as a caste, their military and family lives, their passions, and their symbolic meaning to Japanese and to others. We will be reading first-hand accounts written by samurai men and women, viewing a number of well-known and lesser-known samurai films, and looking at how the realities of samurai life compare with the many meanings the samurai have acquired over the centuries. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 286 - Women in South Asia Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course takes a historical approach towards the topic of gender and sexuality in South Asia, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on the history of women in the region. The course has three major goals: first, to analyze the colonial state and its policies with respect to women and gender relations; second, to study gender relations, women’s voices and women’s movements within the context of nationalist struggles in the post-colonial era; and third, to understand the complexities of trying to recover the “voice” of heterogeneous groups of women in South Asia, divided along lines of caste, class, region, occupation and religion. Study material will include academic texts, films and popular television from the subcontinent. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 287 - Film and Modern India Course Units: 1
(Spring; Mazumder) This course uses a medium of visual representation-cinema-to explore the portrayal of India. It historically traces the development of the cinematic industry in India and highlights the changing images of the region since the 1950s. Each decade evokes a list of stereotypes, of ideas, and of historical realities. We will examine the extent to which films in each decade captured the reality of the period. In particular, we will trace the maturation of the idea of a nation through films and we will explore the positioning of gender in these decades. In general, this course will adopt critical approaches for looking at aesthetics and the representation of South Asia through cinema. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 288 - Twenty-First Century India: Bombay to Mumbai Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Bombay represents a distinctive mode of cultural experience in India - an unceasing traffic in things, people, images, and ideas. It has been the crucible of social and cultural politics in India. It is the epitome of modern Indian imagination. The course will examine this state of modernity by doing a focused study on the city of Bombay as a city, society and as the capital of popular culture in India. Some questions the course will examine are: what happens in India when cities-within-cities coincide or collide? How are the categories of caste, class, and ethnicity mapped onto urban bodies and landscapes? What are the political implications of the production of popular culture? How does violence transform the geography of a city and its urban experience? CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 289 - Global Indians: South Asian Identity in the United States Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The Indian diaspora today constitutes an important, and in some respects a unique force, in world culture and in the United States. We will begin by studying Indians migrating worldwide through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a focus on the United States to pose critical questions about identity, race, religion, gender, cultural assimilation and change. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 291 - Construction for Humanity Course Units: 1
(Crossed with ENS 291 ) (Fall; Ghaly) An interdisciplinary introduction to the technology of construction and the social uses of building by humans. The course considers types of building materials and their application to domestic housing, castles, cathedrals, palaces, monuments, dams, bridges, tunnels, and skyscrapers. CC: SET
|
| |
-
HST 292 - History of Computing Course Units: 1
(Same as CSC 080 ) (Not Offered this Academic Year) A survey of tools for computation, from number systems and the abacus to contemporary digital computers. The course focuses on the development of modern electronic computers from ENIAC to the present. Study of hardware, software, and the societal effects of computing. CC: SET
|
| |
-
HST 295H - History Honors Independent Project 1 Course Units: 0
(Fall, Winter, Spring; Staff)
|
| |
-
HST 296H - History Honors Independent Project 2 Course Units: 1
(Fall, Winter, Spring; Staff)
|
| |
-
HST 299 - The Nuclear Age Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) The nuclear age began with the discovery of radioactivity on the eve of the twentieth century and continues on to the present. The technology people have created to study and exploit the energy and particles released by nuclei, including nuclear weapons and nuclear power, but also many other applications in industry and medicine, have defined this age. This course will survey these economic, political, social, and cultural problems facing mankind: the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and human-induced climate change.
|
| |
-
HST 302 - Comparing Muslim Cultures Course Units: 1
(Winter; Peterson) This course explores the history of Islam in diverse regional and temporal settings. It explores the unity of Islam, through an examination of the early history of the religion and its founding texts and tenets. However, the main emphasis of this course will be Islam’s remarkable heterogeneity over time and space; the foci will be case studies drawn from across the Muslim world - in Africa, the Middle East Asia and Europe. Through readings and discussions, the course examines the following ten topics: The foundation of Islam, the expansion of Islam and conversion processes, Muslim travelers and trade, religious tolerance, women and gender in Islam, Islamic Education, religious revivalism and reform, Muslim lands under European colonial rule, Islam in the West, and the challenge of modernity. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 304 - Cold War in Africa Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) This course will explore the Cold War period in African history with particular focus on theaters of conflict, such as the Congo, the Horn of Africa, and Angola, as well as revolutionary movements. We will examine modes of governance and political culture in African states, socialist and capitalist variants of development, and their discontents. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 310 - Special Topics in United States History Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Prerequisite(s): Any 100-level or 200-level history course or permission of the instructor.
|
| |
-
HST 312 - “Bonds of a Woman”: History of Women’s Rights in the United States Course Units: 1
(Spring; Foroughi) This course examines major themes in the study of women’s rights in the United States. Topics include constitutional and legal rights changes over time; the interplay of gender with race, class, and sexuality involved in “rights” movements since the nineteenth century; and current controversies over women’s rights. Prerequisite(s): Any 100-level or 200-level history course or permission of the instructor.
|
| |
-
HST 315 - Race and Constitution Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) One purpose of this course is to help you better understand the role of race in the legal, constitutional, and political history of the United States. Issues regarding race and slavery have been a constant source of constitutional debate (in one way or another) from the drafting of the Constitution until the present day. Focusing on racial issues, this course examines the historical context in which the Constitution of the United States was drafted and ratified and explores the various methods by which its meaning has changed since 1787. Therefore, this course is about both race in America as well as the Constitution and Constitutional interpretation. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 322 - Slavery and Freedom Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) Examines major themes in the historiography of American slavery. Topics include the relationship between racism and the growth of slave labor, the development of African American slave culture, the nature of the enslaved family, and the transition from slavery to freedom. Prerequisite(s): any 100-level or 200-level history course or permission of the instructor. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 323 - Race and Revolution Course Units: 1
(Winter; Aslakson) This course examines the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. With regard to the former, it addresses the “Jefferson question” - that is, how could the author of the Declaration of Independence be the owner of over 200 slaves. Therefore, it deals with competing interpretations in the Early American Republic of the Ideology of “liberty” and “equality.” Next, the course delves into the far more radical Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave revolution in history. It will deal with the influences of the American and French revolutions on the French New World colony of St. Domingue that made the Haitian revolution possible. Finally, the course examines the impact of the Haitian Revolution on slavery and the anti-slavery movement in the United States. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 324 - Race in American Memory Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) “The struggle of man against power,” wrote Milan Kundera, “is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” This course will examine that struggle as it has taken place in the United States around the issue of race. How have Americans as a nation chosen to remember events that involved race? How and by whom were these collective memories constructed? In what ways were they contested? How have they changed over time? We will explore these issues focusing on such phenomena as Indian removal, slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, Japanese internment and World War II, and the Civil Rights movement, examining depictions in public history and popular cultural forms, including memorials, museums, battlefields, literature, and film. CC: LCC
|
| |
-
HST 325 - War in American Memory Course Units: 1
(Not Offered this Academic Year) In recent years, historians have become increasingly interested in collective memory: its construction, its evolution, and the ways in which it has been used as an instrument of power. Collective memories of wars in particular work to inform ongoing debates about national identity. This course examines the ways that Americans have remembered their nation’s wars. How were these collective memories constructed and in what ways were they contested? What do they reveal about social. political, and economic tensions? To what ends were these collective memories mobilized? How have they changed over time, and how do we as historians understand those changes? In this class we will explore traditional expressions of war memories such as monuments, memorials, and battlefields as well as cultural expressions of these memories in art, literature, and film.
|
| |
-
HST 331 - Representing America: United States History in Film Course Units: 1
(Spring; Feffer) This course compares the representation of American history in Hollywood film with the reconstruction of our past by scholars. Each week students will critically examine the historically-based films of D. W. Griffith, John Ford, Frank Capra, and others. Prerequisite(s): Any 100-level or 200-level history course or permission of the instructor
|
| |
Page: 1 <- 6
| 7
| 8
| 9
| 10
| 11
| 12
| 13
| 14
| 15
| 16
-> 18 |
|
|
|
Print this Page